Putnam County Police Bust Men With Eight Pounds of Marijuana in Jacksonville Area

Jacksonville’s citizens sometimes feel the need to cut loose and have fun. For some, having fun involves drinking; for others, fun involves drugs. These citizens have to get those drugs from somewhere or someone, and typically that someone is a drug dealer. Unfortunately for the drug dealer, the buyer is sometimes working with the police. However, that work must be done legally. If one has been accused of a crime such as this, one should obtain an experienced attorney to fight for one’s case and make sure that one’s rights are protected.

According to the Florida Times-Union, the Jesse Barrett Wallace and Christopher Guilfoyle of Gainesville were arrested after Putnam county police performed an undercover drug bust operation. The arrests come after the two were caught with possession of eight pounds of marijuana and miscellaneous drug equipment in a Wendy’s restaurant parking lot. The marijuana was estimated to be worth a street value of $32,000.

Jacksonville drug crimes cases, many times, involve people who were careful, but not careful enough. Most of the time, the police will stop a person who has drugs on them, is high, or has some other lawful reason to search that person, will find a drug, and arrest them for it. However, the police will typically not stop at just that person.

The Jacksonville police as well as the State Attorney’s office have a policy of being tough on crime, in particular on drug crimes. As such, the police are willing to negotiate with buyers for lower sentences in exchange for helping take down the distributor above him in the chain. This type of negotiated snitching allows the police to find each bigger distributor in the hopes of getting to the source of the drug. However, this still must be done legally.

In this particular case, the two accused men were major distributors of marijuana, as evidenced by the fact that they were in possession of eight pounds of marijuana. Eight pounds of marijuana is considerably more than what would be an amount for personal use. However, based on the amount of time it would take for these two men to acquire that quantity of marijuana, and the gradual increase in networking required to establish one’s self as a decent buyer and distributor, these men would not be subject to carelessness.

It would seem highly unlikely that these men be careless and would most likely conceal the marijuana in a location, lockbox, or other container that the police would not be able to access without a warrant or car impoundment. An experienced Jacksonville drug crimes defense attorney would look at this situation and see that there is a strong possibility that the drug seizure might have been illegal, though the article does not say in particular in what manner the drugs were found.

In a situation like this, if one obtained an experienced attorney to fight for one’s case, if there was enough information to show that the police seized the drugs illegally, one’s attorney could file a motion to suppress the marijuana as illegally obtained evidence, and thus the drugs could not be used against the accused. If the court were to suppress the marijuana, one’s chance of being found not guilty tremendously increases. One will not be convicted of a drug crime if there is no drug.

The Forbess Law Firm has been aiding clients who face criminal charges in Jacksonville for more than a decade and are here to provide aggressive criminal defense to anyone accused of a crime. If you or a loved one require a Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer, contact our firm today. We are available through our website or by calling us at 904-634-0900.